Artist 2

James Casebere

James Casebere studied at Cal Arts under John Baldessari, where they experimented and deconstructed the "truthiness" of the Photograph. He is a post-modern artist at the forefront of Constructed Photography, which means he designs and constructs all the installations he photographs. What i like about them is that they are based on the real but purposely aren't going for the hyper real but rather the clean, bold, reduced shapes and forms of the real. I love his lighting and how he frames his shots. Personally i love architectural photography, yet this is a refreshing twist. He really makes me want to  close in on his photos, get more intimate with their reality.

Artist 1

Joel-Peter Witkin • 1984 • Portrait of Nan New Mexico

I think his work is interesting for a number of reasons. He has a classic compositional style in the way he positions his figures in a scene. He alludes to historical and important art works in many of his photos. Yet where is work grabs me is on a more base, sex and death level. There is a type of voodoo vibe in the ritualistic object placement in his scenes. Sex and death, the beginning and the end. Where these two points meet, the macabre, the fantastic, the archetypes of mythologies emerge. His use of grainy greyscale and sepia tones seem to evoke a primitive tracing back to an echo of our deeper, primordial mind, where dreams and nightmares merge. We may be disturbed but we are compelled to look.

To be honest, this is the first i've heard of him. I will say as soon as a saw his images i was reminded of a music video by NIN. After a little research, i found out that Joel-Peter Witken had a major influence on the director of the video which blew a lot of people away in 1994. If your interested here it is.

Tech 01

Motion

Stop Motion

Shallow Depth of Field

Wide Depth of Field

A Few Art 187 Images